Blackstone Rising

Year of Chaos

Tragic as the VITAS plague was, it was only the beginning of unprecedented chaos. Beginning with the violent dissolution of the Mexican government in January 2011, more governments fell than in any other five-year span in history. Famine stalked the world, adding to the already-lengthy rolls of the dead. Massive civilian protests led to raids of European nuclear power plants, three of which suffered meltdowns. Radiation fallout was extensive and damaging.

On the heels of VITAS came the frightening phenomenon later named Unexplained Genetic Expression, or UGE. All over the world, mutant and changeling children were being born to “normal” parents. Newsweek dubbed these UGE children “elves” and it seemed that the horseman of the Apocalypse had finally arrived. This year has become known as the Year of Chaos.

As miracles and calamities were reported form every nation, religions rose and died. Prophets appeared, proclaiming the end of the world. One of these emerged from the despair of a concentration camp. On December 24, at the same moment that hundreds of Japanese witnessed the first appearance of the great Dragon Ryumyo as they sped past Mount Fuji on a bullet train, the Prophet of the Great Ghost Dance, Daniel Howling Coyote, led his followers out of the Abilene Re-Education Center.